Francis Carmont finally had the opportunity to fight on his home turf at the Bell Centre in Montreal at Saturday’s UFC 154: St-Pierre vs. Condit. He didn’t plan on utilizing the home field advantage in his fight with Tom Lawlor, but it may have played to his favor.

Lawlor immediately tried to take Carmont’s striking away by pressing him to the fence. The referee restarted them, but Lawlor kept at it, repeatedly pressing Carmont to the fence, trying to find a takedown, but Georges St-Pierre’s teammate defended well.

Carmont got caught in a deep guillotine choke late in the opening round, but he remained calm and survived the round.

Lawlor continued to shoot, pressing Carmont to the fence, but the Canadian defended well and started to utilize his striking advantage, scoring with a mix of knees, kicks and punches before Lawlor finally scored the takedown late in round two.

Carmont didn’t stay down for long, but Lawlor continued smothering him on the fence and again scored a takedown. This time, he passed guard and again locked on an arm-in guillotine, full guard on, but much like round one, he couldn’t sink it before the end of the round.

The fight followed suit for the final stanza, Lawlor continuing to press Carmont to the fence, trying to secure takedowns, but in round three, Lawlor was unable to land the guillotine choke the way he did in rounds one and two.

When the scorecards were tallied, Carmont was awarded the split decision victory. The scoring received a heavy dose of boos from Carmont’s hometown crowd.

Carmont notched his ninth consecutive victory, but didn’t have a very happy expression on his face as he left the Octagon, seemingly not pleased with his performance.